FURIOUS Hadleigh residents filled a church hall to voice their fears that the town will be overrun with traffic and the green belt lost forever if 2,500 homes are built.

More than 200 residents attended a meeting on Thursday night at Hadleigh Baptist Church as Castle Point Council spearheaded a consultation over potential sites for housing.

Residents in Hadleigh have been left furious over proposed sites, which include 19 in the town, and voiced their opposition claiming infrastructure cannot cope, roads will become chaos, and open space lost.

According to attendees, questions were often “inaudible” due to the sheer number of people at the meeting.

Pat Sharp, 85, said: “It was absolutely heaving. I got there just before 7pm and I had to push my way in to stand and listen as it was so packed.

“I put my hand up and was totally ignored.

“People were irate and the general mood was ‘nimby’ and flats. What most people there did focus on was the amount of traffic going into Hadleigh and the link-up to get to the A127 and the A13.”

Pat added that a major point of contention was a potential 1,737 homes on Hadleigh Salvation Army farmland, which was drowned out by fierce crowd debate.

Other potential development sites in Hadleigh, include Lidl and Morrisons in London Road, Hadleigh Clinic, the bus depot, Castle Lane car park, and the Conservative Club.

Pat added: “The event should be re-run, the council should take heed because of the volume of people in there, it was hard to hear what questions were being asked.”

Hadleigh resident Martin England, who also attended the meeting, said: “The independent council’s new Local Plan consultation has identified potential development sites in Hadleigh, that include the Salvation Army farmland.

“The council say they are all viable options and developers will see this as a green light to build.

“This could result in the destruction of Hadleigh.

“The overriding feeling of the meeting was that this is not what the people of Hadleigh want and it was amazing to see so many Hadleigh residents attend, because they care about their community.”